it to
ascertain whether it is worth while to turn out such a force of men for
it or not.

In order, however, to prevent this unnecessary assembling of men when
the fire was found to be trifling, or when, as was sometimes the case,
it was a false alarm, the fireman in charge of the engine that arrived
first, at once sent a man back to the station with a "stop," that is,
with an order to telegraph to the central station that the fire turns
out to be only a chimney or a false alarm, and that all hands who have
started from the distant stations may be "stopped." The "stop" was at
once telegraphed to the foremen, from whom it was passed (just as the
"call" had been) to the outlying stations, and this second telegram
might arrive within quarter of an hour of the first.

Of course the man from each station had set out before that time, and
the "stop" was too late for _him_, but it was his duty to call at the
various fire stations he happened to pass on the way, where he soon
found out whether he was to "go on" or to "go back."

If no telegram had been received, he went on to the fire; sometimes
walking four or five miles to it, "at not less than four miles an hour."
On coming up to the scene of conflagration, he put on his helmet,
thrust his cap into the breast of his coat, and reported himself to the
chief of the fire brigade (who was usually on the spot), or to the
foreman in command, and found, probably, that he had arrived just in
time to be of great service in the way of relieving the men who first
attacked the flames.

If, on the other hand, he found that the "stop" had been telegraphed, he
turned back before having gone much more than a mile from his own
station, and so went quietly home to bed. In the days of which we write
the effective and beautiful system of telegraphy which now exists had
not been applied to the fire stations of London, and the system of
"stops" and "calls," although in operation, was carried out much less
promptly and effectively by means of messengers.

Some time before the entrance of Willie Willders into the King Street
station the engine had been turned out to a fire close at hand, which
proved to be only a chimney on fire, and which was put out by means of a
hand-pump and a bucket of water, while Moxey was sent back with the
"stop" to the station. The affair was over and almost forgotten, and
the men had resumed their pipes, as we have seen, when young Rags
entered and was told to go